Category: EPA

(Editor Note: Insight Bytes focus on key economic issues and solutions for all of us, on Thursdays we spotlight in more depth Solutions to issues we have identified. Fridays we focus on how to build the Common Good. Please right click on images to see them larger in a separate tab. Click on the Index Topic Name at the beginning of each post to see more posts on that topic on PC or Laptop.)

Photo: washingtonpost.com

Something’s not right. My grandson is not playing soccer and POTUS nominates a coal lobbyist to lead the EPA?

We all feel it. Right in the pit of our stomach, here in Northern California, while we are being hurt by the effects climate change. While not completely to blame, the Butte County fire storm was compounded by global greenhouse gas effects and as a possible cause a spark from an electricity wire.

Something is not right. As we experience in the Bay Area our eighth day of unhealthy air from the Camp Fire in the Sierra foothills. Those with lung diseases are shut away in their homes, people are not going out. Businesses that depend on foot traffic are seeing losses of 10 – 20 %. Football games like the Big Game, between Stanford and California are being rescheduled to December 1st – the first time that game has been rescheduled since the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. Local universities and colleges are closed for classes: Stanford, University of California, Santa Clara University, De Anza College and many secondary school districts.

Yet, our President nominates a coal lobbyist to head up EPA? The mission is in the name Environment Protection Agency, Not Environmental Destruction Agency. Coal is a fossil fuel contributing to massive amounts of gas emissions warming our earth. Heating the planet every day. Here is the path we are on toward 1.5 degrees C and eventual extinction of the human race:

Sources: The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Shot – 11/15/18

My grandson’s soccer game was cancelled last Saturday and will be cancelled again tomorrow due to unhealthy smoke in the air. Is this the new normal? We don’t have to support this heresy destroying our environment, our families and our lives anymore!

Why in the world is a coal lobbyist heading up EPA? Something is very wrong with this picture. Maybe the House Progressive Caucus has it right to camp out at Nancy Pelosi’s office the other day demanding climate change legislation.

We have accepted the status quo too long on climate change. Industry priorities must come second to clean air, water and the planet period.

The sheer ignorance, lack of wisdom and understanding of science is killing our people, making life a struggle for thousands, shortening life expectancies and reducing the sales of legitimate businesses – all so coal companies that should be shifting their business from fossil fuels to renewables have not made the transition. We should not be paying for coal company executive mistakes.

We need to be asking at what cost do we keep coal? It is clear the cost is too great. We need to quit accepting the platitude ‘it saves jobs’ and replace it with we want ‘live saving jobs’ for all. We can’t accept this environmental spiral downward for the ourselves and our planet. We must return to the Paris Climate Change agreement, renew investments in renewables, focus on clean jobs training and development. Get on with it now, future generations and our planet are depending on us to make sound decisions and not accept blind governance one day longer.

One of the major problems facing environmental government and non-government groups is monitoring emissions from locations all over the planet. Many locations maybe quite remote while others are easily identifiable using land based monitoring systems. So, having a satellite to monitor emissions world wide is a way to accurately monitor emissions.

Methane emissions are a major component of climate change gases.Here are EPA projections for all climate change gases:

Chart: EPA – 2016

Environment Defense Fund President, Fred Krugg recently announced in a TedTalk, in Vancover, British Columbia that EDF was developing a fourth wave environmental monitoring system. The first wave was the conservation movement led by President Teddy Roosevelt, second came the anti-pollution laws of the 1960s and 1970s. Third, was the use of market based solutions and corporate partnerships in the 1990s.

The MethaneSAT is a Fourth Wave environmental monitoring system, using satellite technology to identify methane sources planet wide. Readings would be sent to government and non-government groups to identify sources, work out solutions and weigh alternative measures. Methane is a potent gas responsible for 25 % of all global warming. Targeting methane gas emissions is the fastest, cheapest way to attack global warming while other programs continue to focus on carbon dioxide emissions as well, according to EDF.

The launch target for MethaneSAT is 2021, with a focus on specific monitoring areas including 80 % of all oil and gas fields across the planet. Feedlots, agriculture and other methane sources will be monitored as well. EDF has set a high goal of 45 % reduction in oil and gas methane emissions by 2025. Achievement of this goal would deliver the same 20 year climate benefit as closing one third of all coal fired power plants worldwide.

We are pleased to see EDF take a proactive approach to monitoring methane worldwide, we hope that the U.S. and other countries will work hard to support this effort. The U.S. should not be waiting for an NGO to take the lead, the EPA needs to take the lead and focus on how to gather accurate data to effectively manage climate change initiatives as well as water.

The Wall Street Journal yesterday disclosed that Scott Pruitt, EPA Director, is working to limit the veto power of the agency over large projects impacting water quality. The agency has used the veto power sparingly – only 13 times since it was given the authority in the Clean Water Act of 1972.

Pruit believes the veto authority has gone too far impeding economic development, “I am concerned that the mere potential of EPA’s use of its… authority before or after the permitting process could influence investment decisions and chill economic growth by short-circuiting the permitting process,”, in a 4 page memo to regional staff.

Why is this clean water common good responsibility so hard to execute? If a person dumped all his waste water and sewage in the street in front of his neighbors’ house, the neighbor would be upset and rightfully so. So, why do we treat mines, real estate developments, or port development any differently? Is it because they are trying to make a profit while desecrating the land so it is ok?

Chromium-6 a known carcinogen made famous in the movie ‘Erin Brockovich’ has been found in the drinking water of millions of Americans. The non-profit Environmental Working Group has been monitoring the status of chromium-6 found in 2017 the substance in the drinking water of over 200 million people. So, there are dangerous substances that still need to be monitoring in our drinking water.

The EPA has not taken in its public stewardship responsibility to the level of other countries, there are thousands of chemicals that can cause pollution and possible health hazards – none have been added to the pollutants list since 2000. The list is small only 90 are covered in the Clean Water Actout of about ten thousand. In the European Union they closely track over 2,500 different chemicals.

While the EPA is not as diligent as it needs to be, President Trump a year ago weakened the Clean Water Act requirement that mining companies ensure that water dumped into streams be cleaned to safe water standards. The policy shift impacts the drinking water of over 117 million people.

Source: Scientific American, – 3/10/17

The GOP Administration continues to undermine protections in place for 40 years to ensure clean water is available to all citizens. The lead levels found in Flint, Michigan water show that in some areas around the country the job is not getting done. Weakening the Clean Water Act in regard to mining dross and limiting the use of EPA veto on projects are just two examples of an indifferent and dangerous attitude by the agency.

Next steps:

In a Gallup poll 57 % of the people said they favor ensuring environmental quality over economic growth when a decision needs to be made.